Friday, 31 October 2014

When exactly did Hallowe'en become a thing in the UK? When did trick-or-treating begin in earnest? As a kid in the 1960s, my memory is of returning to school in early September, after the summer holidays, and moving pretty seamlessly into standing on street corners next to a pile of old rags in a pushchair, with a saucepan for a head, shouting 'penny for the guy mister?' at passing strangers. I was aware of the existence of Hallowe'en from cartoons and American TV programmes, but the day was never celebrated or recognised round our way - Fireworks Night was infinitely more important. When did the change occur? It must've been in the 1980s when I wasn't looking. Nowadays, at this time of the year, you can't move for costumes and decorations hanging from shop displays and pumpkins rolling around all over the place. I don't think I even knew what a pumpkin was until I was in my 20s!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the harvest from our own allotment is currently taking up every available space in the house - I love 'em now! Happy Hallowe'en everyone!

Here's Charles 'Packy' Axton, in his guise as The Pac-Keys, with 'Greasy Pumpkin' from 1967. Axton's story is a fascinating one and this tune can be found on a terrific compilation of his work entitled 'Late, Late Party 1965-67'. Find out more about the man and his music here.

Monday, 27 October 2014

Just a few hours ago, in a charity shop some
40 miles from here, I speculatively handed over 50 of my hard earned pennies in exchange for an LP entitled 'South of the Border', by Brazilia 70 & the Chico Lopez All-Stars. In spite of the long-winded moniker, it's a rather anonymous affair, containing precious little additional information regarding the personnel involved. After listening to the first few tracks, however, it quickly became clear that both the quality of the playing and the production values are far superior to what you'd expect from a 1970 release on a budget record label.

The groovy, guitar drenched 'Trouble Spot' is worth the price of admission alone. Hold on to your hat!

Sunday, 26 October 2014

My Great-Aunt Maud was quite unwell and
confined to her bed, so to keep
her company, and her mind occupied, Mum and I
sat with her and sorted through all her old
photos. The year was 1969 and Mum knew only a
few of the faces staring out of the ancient
images, I of course, knew none at all. One by
one, we showed them to Aunt Maud and asked
her to put names to the anonymous faces, Mum
then wrote the details on the back of each
photo. Looking back, I'm sure Mum was worried
that we might lose Aunt Maud at the time, but
happily, not only did she recover from that
bout of ill health, she actually lived until
1983, by which time she was in her late 80's.

In the four years since Mum herself passed
away, I've often recalled that day sitting at
Aunt Maud's bedside. The reason? If I'm ever
looking through a box of old photos and
wonder who on Earth the subject of a
particular snap is, how they relate to my
family or where the shot was taken, I turn it over and invariably Mum has provided
me with some or all of the required
information, written on the reverse. You
might think that this isn't unusual, it's
something many of us have done with old
photos, but Mum took the idea a stage further. I've found that she
also added hidden handwritten notations to
several of her most treasured possessions. To
aid her own memory, or as information for me to find later?
I don't know.

Here are two examples. Meet Nobby and Rover, frail mantelpiece ornaments discovered packed away in Mum's loft, who've apparently been in the family since 1955, possibly given
as wedding gifts to my Parents.

Thursday, 23 October 2014

As the house lights dim, Nic Jones appears
from the side curtain, puts down his walking
stick and makes his way unsteadily across the
stage, pausing to wave and bow to the
cheering and already emotional audience.
Behind him, Joe, rake thin, jet black hair,
steps to the microphone to affectionately address his Dad. 'What
are you bowing for? You haven't done anything
yet!' Later, Nic introduces Bill Worsfold's,
'I Only Spoke Portuguese', by explaining that
it's the true story of a couple, neither of
whom spoke the other's language, who were
therefore unable to speak directly to each
other throughout their long marriage. Joe,
busy re-tuning his guitar, looks up for long
enough to mutter, 'Yes, I expect Mum would've
quite liked that...' Badum tish!

The set, beautifully paced, is weighted
towards the classic 'Penguin Eggs' LP and for
the latter part of the concert Nic and Joe
are joined on stage by the original melodeon
player on that record, East Anglian native,
Tony Hall. The significance of this reunion
isn't lost on Joe who stands strumming
gently, grinning from ear to ear, between the
two men, as they delicately rekindle their
musical relationship. Not for the first time
this evening, high emotion threatens to
overshadow the moment and it's skillfully
diffused by Tony Hall's quip after Joe
introduces 'The Little Pot Stove'. 'What are
we playing now?' he asks, pretending not to
have caught Joe's announcement, 'The Little
Pot Noodle?'

Joe, an astounding player, prompts approving
smiles and warm paternal applause several
times during the concert, Father and Son
lightheartedly disagreeing about just how
much guitar know-how Nic has passed on to Joe.
'Three chords' says Joe, 'No - I just told you how to
hit the thing!' counters Nic. Though he's
understandably frail, Nic's voice is strong,
his phrasing undiminished. A towering
presence, thought lost to us forever, but,
against all odds, here he is, performing
again. Long may he continue. An unforgettable evening.

Friday, 17 October 2014

Trying to keep any residual coughing and
spluttering to myself, we took my visiting
Aunt out to the coast for lunch yesterday. A
hearty and delicious chick pea, mixed bean &
vegetable cassoulet soothed my fevered brow
enough to face a bracing walk along the pier,
which certainly helped to clear the away the
cobwebs.

Tuesday, 14 October 2014

Apologies for my recent radio silence, but
I'm laid low at the moment with some form of
bug, possibly man-flu. This is day three and
I'm hoping that it fast tracks out of my
system before a long arranged two day visit
from an elderly Aunt tomorrow afternoon, as I
wouldn't wish it on anyone. Among the current symptoms are very violent cold shivers and the opposite extreme of overheating and heavy sweating, which combine to litter what little sleep I'm getting with crazy, feverish dreams.

I managed to watch a little of the BBC
documentary on the Russian space Programme
this morning, before passing out again. Was
it one of those feverish dreams, or did I
really hear Eduard 'Mr Trololo' Khil's singular
performance of 'I Am Glad, 'Cause I'm Finally
Returning Back Home' playing behind one of
the scenes?

You've probably seen this clip a million
times, but if not, take a look - you'll be convinced that you're the one with the fever. It has to be seen (and heard) to be believed.

Normal service will be resumed when my
brain's working properly again.

Saturday, 11 October 2014

Even in the often confusing world of Lee
Perry's huge supporting cast of characters,
the contribution of Burt Walters would surely
be seen as a minor one, were it not for a
typically inspired slice of Upsetter madness.
Discovered while singing barefoot on a street
corner in early 1968, Walters was quickly
whisked into the studio to voice a couple of
covers with Scratch at the controls. A re-written 'Blowin' in the Wind' (credited to
Bob Dillon), complete with low budget sound
effects, eventually appeared on the flip of
Perry's own classic, 'People Funny Boy'.

The only single to be issued under Burt
Walters' own name was a cover of the 1954
Drifters hit, 'Honey Love', which initially
released as a Jamaican only white label 7". It's
pleasant enough, I'm sure you'll agree.

At this point, though, either the money ran
out or perhaps Scratch just lost faith in
Burt's abilities, because instead of
recording another tune to put on the flip-side
of 'Honey Love', Perry simply plucked the
original vocal out of the mix, reversed it
and laid it back onto the rhythm, titling it
'Evol Yenoh'. This straight forward act
transformed a sweet little pop song into an
unhinged thing of disturbing weirdness,
featuring Walters appearing to speak in
tongues. Unsurprisingly, Trojan in the UK
passed on 'Evol Yenoh', only allowing 'Honey
Love' to sneak out as the b-side to an
unrelated instrumental cut, 'Thunderstorm',
by King Cannon Ball in December 1968.

Thursday, 9 October 2014

Did I ever tell you the one about what was,
until recently (see here), my second best
ever car-boot sale find?* It was ridiculously
early one Sunday morning in 1991, in a shady
corner of a car park, adjacent to Ipswich
Town football ground and as I ambled along a
row of tightly packed wallpapering tables,
bowing under the weight of a thousand unloved
nick-nacks, I spied a cardboard box on the
ground, pushed back beneath a table and
almost out of sight. I pulled the heavy box
forwards and lifted the flaps to discover a
pile of magazines, topped by a vintage copy
of the Radio Times. Nothing too exciting
here, I thought. Delving a little deeper,
though, beneath several more old TV listing
guides, lay 24 random issues of Beat
Instrumental Magazine from the late 1960s and very early 1970s. I got the whole box for a quid.

During that period, Beat Instrumental was a publication
where Clodagh Rodgers rubbed shoulders with
King Crimson and an interview with Glen
Campbell jostled for position with Viv
Stanshall's latest column. I had hours of fun
ploughing through the magazines, reading about
'underground' band Tyrannosaurus Rex
shortening their name to T.Rex, Jimmy Page
unveiling the line-up of The 'New' Yardbirds
and The Trogg's adventures on a package tour
with a new young band called The Jimi Hendrix
Experience. Towards the end of the 1990s,
with finances a little tight, I sold all 24
of the magazines for an amount that, at the
time, it would've been silly to turn down.

The only reason I mention this fairly
uninteresting little tale, is that at the
weekend I stumbled, in not totally dissimilar
circumstances, upon another batch of Beat
Instrumentals. The weird thing is that, once
again, there were 24 of them in the box. Not
consecutive issues, but 24 random ones. I
picked them up 50 miles from the location of
that initial haul 23 years ago and 120 miles
from where I later sold them, so I doubt
they're the same magazines, returning like a
group of long lost homing pigeons (though I've yet to totally rule this out), but why 24
again? Why not 5 or 10 or 50? Perhaps people only dispose of them in lots of 24 - I did. Perhaps 24 is
my lucky number. Maybe it's time I did the
lottery. Either way, my spare time reading material for the immediate future just took a turn for the better.

Here's Coxsone Dodd's house band, The Sound
Dimension, with a killer Studio One
instrumental entitled 'Heavy Beat'. You see
what I did there? Instrumental.....Beat.....
Oh, please yourself!

(*My number one best ever car-boot sale find? I really
must share that, one of these days.)

Sunday, 5 October 2014

By the time you read these words, The Jim
Jones Revue will be no more. At the
penultimate concert of their 'Last Hurrah'
tour on Friday evening, the band, as always,
played as if their lives depended upon it,
determined to give everything they had right up
until the very final moments of their existence. It was hot, it was exhausting and it was loud.

Here are the singles that served to bookend
their career, 'Rock 'n' Roll Psychosis' from
2008 and, a personal favourite, 2013's 'Collision
Boogie'.